Murray Avenue Grill

We had lunch the other day at the Murray Avenue Grill, which is (shockingly) on Murray Avenue in Squirrel Hill.

This is a long-time favorite of mine, but I try something new every time we patronize this joint.

We sat right in the front window (which is usually my favorite seat in ANY house because we♥ both love to people watch.

There are additional booths in the back there and also patio seating when the weather is nice:

We♥ had always loved the buffalo chicken dip here, but they took it off the menu for some ONGODLY reason.

Whatev.  You can be replaced.

The dips at Murray Avenue Grill aren’t portioned like TGIFridays. They are great for 2 people who don’t want an entire meal, but an actual appetizer.

I had never noticed the extensive list of beers before this visit:

She♥ ordered the Leffe Blonde and:

While I just picked something completely random off the drink menu:

And here’s my piggy piggy plate:

It was okay.  The horseradish sauce was good, but there was a little too much of it.  The brisket itself was excellent.

In my defense, I only ate half the sandwich and a handful of fries.  I ended up finishing the rest for dinner.  Yummyyyyyyyyy.

Tags: imported beers, micro beers, murray avenue, murray avenue grill, patio seating, pittsburgh restaurant patio, smoked beef brisket, spinach and artichoke dip, squirrel hill

Urban Recycling: Steel Valley

Growing up in the ‘burbs left me kind of ignorant to the idea of waste management.

Yes, I know I talk about waste, poop, and compost a lot.  Move on.

I had grown up with curbside garbage and recycling and didn’t realize that other people don’t just walk their yuckies to the end of the driveway and never think about it again.

As an educated adult, I no longer have that option.  I know too well that what goes out, goes someplace else – someone else’s place sometimes.

Did you know that Pennsylvania is the U.S.’s larger importer of waste?  According to ActionPA, we import waste from 28 friggin other states.  Only 23% of the garbage in PA landfills comes from Pennsylvanians.  Why?  Because Pennsylvania has extremely low tipping fees compared to other states.  Pennsylvania averages around $20-$30 per ton to dump, whereas neighboring states average about $80-$100 per ton to dump (source).  Yes, we are making money off of other people’s garbage.  But we are also becoming a dumping ground.

This is an image of a landfill near my hometown.

I live in a small borough that borders the city of Pittsburgh.  We do not have curbside recycling.  But what am I supposed to do?  Not recycle?  Yeah, right.

So about every week or every other week, depending on how much crap we generate, she♥ and I pack up our car with recyclables and drive:

And dump:

Trust me, 5 miles away isn’t that serious and we normally swing by when we already have plans to be in that neighborhood.  But why?  Why doesn’t my borough make it easier for its citizens to recycle?  Why wouldn’t they want to do something that would lessen vehicular traffic which would result in lesser pollution and less dependence on fossil fuel?  I intend to find out.

That’s enough ranting from me, I suppose.

Do you recycle? 

Does you community make it easy or hard?

Tags: cost of recycing, pennsylvania landfills, pennsylvania west management, recycling programs, steel valley, urban recycling, waste management, waste management pittsburgh, west homestead

Try to have a flashback…

(I thought I posted this PRIOR to my trip to Chicago, but then I found it saved as a draft today.)

(Source-EOnline)

‘Member that roasted red pepper soup I was talking about forever ago?

Well, I thought I would just let you know that it turned out AWESOME!

When I was reheating the soup for dinner, I made my asparagus.

I call it my asparagus, because its the only way I will ever cook asparagus because it is the best and tastiest thing I have ever ingested.  Trust me and peel some garlic.

As soon as the garlic becomes fragrant, I throw in my asparagus and cover it with dill:

I saute the asparagus over a medium-low heat (covered if they are really thick like these guys) and then spritz them with lemon juice right before I take them off the heat.  Effing amazing.

Asparagus and red pepper soup need salmon.  Yummy, thick salmon:

I always buy salmon fillets with the skin still on them because as you can see above, the fatty lining containing things like yummy omega threes and flavor is still intact.

When I broil the fish, those omegas are released into the fish and your absorption of them increases.

I broiled this salmon 10 minutes with the skin side up and about 10 minutes with the skin side down.

(I swear my oven is off, though, so make sure the fish is no longer fleshy inside and flakes easily with a fork.)

It was literally that easy.  Except for the whole red pepper soup explosion thing.

Tags: asparagus, broiled salmon, omega 3 fatty acids, omega 3s, red pepper soup, salmon, the best asparagus ever made

Wordless Wednesday

Tags: wordless wednesday

In Memory on Memorial Day

I don’t have anything fantastical to report from Memorial Day.

To be honest, I was completely exhausted from our trip and then we had to drive an additional hour to visit my parents on Monday.

Because it was Memorial Day, I decided to make one of my grandmother (Bubba)’s pies.

Strawberry Pie.

I don’t have any specific memory of this pie, like I do many of her other desserts, but it felt appropriate for Memorial Day.  Both in significance, season and stars & stripes.

I’ve spoken about my grandmother before here, and it is so special to me that I am able to share her love of cooking on a day created to remember loved ones who have moved on. ♥

This pie is so simple and I know I didn’t do it justice.  I know what I did wrong, easily fixable for my next attempt.

First, combine in a saucepan:

Keep stirring it until it gets thick and syrupy:

While the filling is becoming delicious, put 4 cups of sliced strawberries into a pie crust.

I used a shortbread pre-made crust because I had absolutely no desire to make a crust Monday morning.

After my filling was done, I poured it over the pie crust and popped it in the fridge to set.

In my rush, I forgot that pre-made crusts are always a little bit smaller than hand-baked ones.  The edges never support the filling quite like a flaky dough you can mold into what you want.

The pie didn’t have time to set, unfortunately.  We wanted to scarf it down long before it was ready.

OOPS.

No complaints here!  Next time, my pie will stay together – just you wait.    The fact that it didn’t turn out kind of makes me smile, because if you knew Bubba – she wasn’t the type of woman to let one failure stop her from success.

I hope that you all got to spend Memorial Day with the ones you love, remembering all the ones who’ve come before.

And enjoy some Strawberry Pie Soup ♥

Tags: bubba, memorial day, strawberries, strawberry pie